People tell me they find this book depressing. At best, they condemn it as too realistic as if the function of literature should be to distract us from such things. Even I found the beginning difficult because Olive seemed to not give her kind husband Henry a break, but Henry is kind effortlessly. He would certainly find this book depressing. Olive doesn't have the choice to make an effort to be more like Henry. She has as little insight into who she is as Henry until the book's end. No one in the book really does and thus they suffer when they realize that life doesn't really work out the way they've been told. When they notice, they become surprised, then angry, then depressed and think it's just them. Maybe that's what people mean by "too realistic" but this refusal to see the conventional as desirable is why I like this book so much and had to immediately start the sequel [b:Olive, Again|43984883|Olive, Again|Elizabeth Strout|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1576676858l/43984883.SY75.jpg|66502791] as soon as I finished.